Un Món que creix

Aquesta entrega d’Engega comença amb un resum a grans trets de l’evolució de la implantació dels graus a la UdG, un dels reptes més importants de la docència en els últims anys

Un Primer balanç de la implantació dels graus

Els graus de Medicina i Relacions Públiques, les primeres titulacions de la UdG que van implantar les directrius de Bolonya, són a punt de desplegar el quart curs. El setembre vinent la majoria dels altres graus arribaran al tercer

Diagnosi integral de les necessitats de formació universitària a Girona: resum executiu

Breu resum dels temes resultants de l'estudi sobre les necessitats de formació universitària a Girona, que inclou els diferents punts: Percepció, valoracions i expectatives sobre la UdG, Percepcions sobre l’entorn: necessitats i demandes de l’economia gironina, La necessitat d’establir aliances, El lideratge de la UdG, L’oferta formativa, La necessitat d’un plantejament global

Inici de curs

Editorial que fa referència a la situació actual donant una especial rellevància a dues circumstàncies que afecten de manera directa el present i l’esdevenidor de la UdG ,a través de sengles entrevistes a la persona que inaugura el curs 2011-2012 i al nou alcalde de Girona.També es fa un breu resum del contingut de la revista

Una assignatura 2.0

El professor José A. Donaire inicia aquest curs l’assignatura 'Tipologies i estratègies dels espais turístics'. És una assignatura de segon curs del Grau en Turisme que aquest any, com a element innovador, s'estructurarà a través de la xarxa social Twitter i esdevindrà una assignatura oberta a altres persones a més a més dels estudiants

Nit de la Recerca 2011

Un cop més Girona, s'ha sumat a la Nit de la Recerca. Unes 340 ciutats europees han celebrat, de manera conjunta, la gran festa de la recerca amb l’objectiu de mostrar-la a la societat

Els estudis tècnics en la societat actual

El futur del país s’ha de basar en una economia productiva innovadora i d’alt contingut tecnològic. El coneixement és un valor a l’alça en els països desenvolupats, per això calen més especialistes tècnics, principalment enginyers, amb una formació aplicada i versàtil. Malauradament, els interessos dels nous estudiants universitaris no coincideixen amb les demandes de l’empresa i la societat. Els estudis tècnics s’han de fomentar i prestigiar

Towards globo sapiens : transforming learners in higher education

Global and local studies show that the present growth-based approach to development is unsustainable. If we are serious about surviving the 21st century we will need graduates who are not simply 'globally portable' or even 'globally competent', but also wise global citizens, Globo sapiens. This book contributes to what educators need to know, do and be in order to support transformative learning. The book is based on work with large, socially and culturally diverse, first-year engineering students at an Australian university of technology. It shows that reflective journals, with appropriate planning and support, can be one pillar of a transformative pedagogy which can encourage significant and even transformative attitude change in relation to gender, culture and the environment. It also offers evidence of improved communication skills and other tangible changes to counter common criticisms that such work is "airy-fairy" and irrelevant. The author combines communication theory with critical futures thinking to provide layered understandings of how transformative learning affected students' thinking, learning and behaviour. So the book is both a case-study and a detailed response to the personal and professional challenges that educators all over the world will face as they try to guide students in sustainable directions. It will be useful to teachers in higher education, especially those interested in internationalisation of the curriculum, transformative learning and values change for sustainable futures.

Technological talespinning : new media and higher education in the USA : an examination of technological determinism

This thesis examines the theory of technological determinism, which espouses the view that technological change drives social change, through an analysis of the impact of new media on higher education models in the United States of America. In so doing, it explores the impacts of new media technologies on higher education, in particular, and society in general. The thesis reviews the theoretical shape of the discourse surrounding new media technologies before narrowing in on utopian claims about the impact of new media technologies on education. It tests these claims through a specific case study of higher education in the USA. The study investigates whether 'new' media technologies (eg the Internet) are resulting in new forms of higher education in the USA and whether the blurring of information and entertainment technologies has caused a similar blurring in education and entertainment providers. It uses primary data gathered by the author in a series of interviews with key education, industry and media representatives in North America in 1997. Chapter 2 looks at the literature and history surrounding several topics central to the thesis - the discourses of technological determinism, the history of technology use and adoption in education, and impacts of new media technologies on education. Chapter 3 presents the findings of the American case study on the relationship between media and higher education and Chapter 4 concludes and synthesises the investigation.

Craft, process and art : teaching and learning music composition in higher education

This paper explores models of teaching and learning music composition in higher education. It analyses the pedagogical approaches apparent in the literature on teaching and learning composition in schools and universities, and introduces a teaching model as: learning from the masters; mastery of techniques; exploring ideas; and developing voice. It then presents a learning model developed from a qualitative study into students’ experiences of learning composition at university as: craft, process and art. The relationship between the students’ experiences and the pedagogical model is examined. Finally, the implications for composition curricula in higher education are presented.

The role of academic community in higher learning : Alternatives to a drive-thru education

The purpose of our paper is to illustrate the fundamental importance of developing academic community among first year students. We argue that a sense of academic community is of fundamental importance in combating the effects of the neo-liberal economic discourse on higher education, and that the values of higher education are incongruent with those of economic rationalism. The discursive commodification of the student, and of education itself, works against the formation of community, both within the university environment and in the wider society. We argue that, at present, the dominant discourse shaping the social practice of higher education is that of neo-liberal economics. Community values stand in opposition to the dominant discourse, and are integral to the long-term survival of a socially critical and socially responsive society. We conclude that the importance of establishing a sense of academic community during the first year of university is justified by its ultimate value to society.

Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education

The importance of reflection in higher education, and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised; it is generally included in university graduate attributes, professional standards and program objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly embedded into assessment requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary scaffolding or clear expectations for students. Despite the rhetoric around the importance of reflection for ongoing learning, there is scant literature on any systematic, developmental approach to teaching reflective learning across higher education programs/courses. Given that professional or academic reflection is not intuitive, and requires specific pedagogic intervention to do well, a program/course-wide approach is essential. This paper draws on current literature to theorise a new, transferable and customisable model for teaching and assessing reflective learning across higher education, which foregrounds and explains the pedagogic field of higher education as a multi-dimensional space. We argue that explicit and strategic pedagogic intervention, supported by dynamic resources, is necessary for successful, broad-scale approaches to reflection in higher education.